The Big Four banks have bluntly rejected Commissioner Kenneth Hayne’s mooted changes, in their virtually identical submissions to the banking royal commission’s Interim Report. We should assume that not only were their submissions probably coordinated with each other, they were also cc’d to the Morrison government, as a week later Morrison and Frydenberg reappointed APRA chairman Wayne Byres eight months early to ensure there would be no major changes imposed on the banks.
Hopefully Commissioner Hayne sees through these manoeuvres, but even if he does and recommends sweeping changes, there is no obligation on the government to implement them.
The ball is actually in the Australian Labor Party’s court, which is on track to be the next government: what will it do, to put the banks in their place and ensure Hayne’s inquiry can lead to real changes? Their support for Byres’ reappointment, albeit while questioning the timing, is not a good sign–there is a huge question mark hanging over Byres and APRA from the revelations of the royal commission.
The 8 November Australian Financial Review reported:
Banks hit back at Hayne’s interim report ideas
The big four banks have launched a strident defence of vertical integration, lending benchmarks and executive bonuses.
by James Frost
The big four banks have launched a strident defence of vertical integration, lending benchmarks and executive bonuses in a direct challenge to a series of radical and probing questions posed by Commissioner Kenneth Hayne.
The banks have baulked at suggestions that current practices are in breach of their legal obligations or in conflict with the best interests of customers…
[The banks resorted to threats:]
Commonwealth Bank in its submission has warned the royal commission to tread carefully with its final recommendations around lending or risk a massive transfer of responsibility from borrowers to lenders.
The banks have also pushed back on suggestions that would tilt the playing field too far towards the favour of customers [shock, horror!], warning of higher costs and reduced services.
…
NAB has warned of higher costs for financial services companies if Hayne was to proceed with a recommendation for structural separation, seeing many Australians priced out of financial advice altogether.
[What conflict of interest?]
Westpac, one of the few banks to push ahead with the vertically integrated model in which banks offer transactional and investment products, argued that conflicts occur everywhere and do not “arise from the structural features of a business”.
http://www.cecaust.com.au/releases/2018_11_09_Banks_Tell_Royal_Commission.html
